Finding Your Army of Volunteers

by Timothy Hosey July 1, 2016


Believe it or not, they are out there—an army of volunteers who can help your chapter in every way. But they are not going to come running to you. You have to target them, go up to them and sell them on volunteering. The key to the whole process is recruiting volunteers on the level of one human being to another human being. In other words, treat your volunteers as precious people, not volunteers.

Here are some helpful guidelines to find great volunteers and sell them on joining your battle. 

Be Proactive. Don’t wait for potential volunteers to contact you. Target them and then ask them for their help. Go to their office, talk to them at chapter meetings, take them to lunch, buy them a cup of coffee or a beer, stop them to say hello in the street or a parking lot, but contact them face to face. You should initiate contact with potential volunteers. 

Forget the Cause, Sell the Relationships. Do not try to sell the cause—like the glory of the chapter, the greater good, altruism or anything like that. Sell the relationships the person will gain. Sell the idea that they will be working with people they’ll enjoy. Sell the idea that you’re creating your own little work community. Sell the idea that they’ll be doing something different and enjoyable, and that they’ll learn something new and helpful. Sell the sense of belonging and purpose that they’ll gain. Sell the idea that they’ll develop new abilities and meet future business allies on whom they’ll be able to call in the never-ending “Battle of Small Business.” Do not talk about volunteer work in terms of it being a donation of time that a person owes to you or to your chapter. Focus on how volunteering is a transaction in which the volunteer gives their precious time but receives equally precious rewards in return. 

Get to Know Them as Human Beings. Learn about your volunteers’ business situations, their hopes and fears and dreams, their families, their weaknesses and strengths, their life history and more. Talk often about these topics with them. 

Use Volunteers to Recruit Other Volunteers. Once you’ve got volunteers helping you, ask them to help you find more volunteers. 

Talk “Team” at all Times. You can call your volunteers what you like—officers, board members, committee or workgroup members or whatever. But in the end, your volunteers are your team members. Remember these five core traits of a good team and build these ideas into the mindset of the group: 

• common goals and vision
• high level of internal trust
• high level of competency
• high level of coordination
• high level of internal communication 

Express Clearly Defined Roles and Expectations. Don’t throw new volunteers into battle before they even know what’s going on. Create a reporting structure so that they can ask questions and give feedback. Train often, coach constantly. 

Interact Personally and Listen Actively. Talk with every single one of your volunteers on a personal level and listen closely to what they say. 

Reward Volunteers on a Personal Level. Do not give volunteers paper certificates of recognition to hang on the walls of their offices. Instead, constantly praise your volunteers in real-time. Tell them how lucky you are to have them helping you. Send them thank-you notes, buy them pizza when you’re working together, help them solve one or two of their own personal or business problems. Do anything to make them feel recognized, treasured and validated. 

Have Fun! Grumpiness runs downhill and so does fun. Turn on the music, bring in the videos, laugh, cut up, tell inspection business war stories, turn work into games and do everything else you can to make sure that you all have fun…and that includes you. 

To get anything done quickly and efficiently, every nonprofit group needs a horde of volunteers. It doesn’t matter whether you’re running a Kiwanis or Rotary Club, a Chamber of Commerce, a 4-H group or an ASHI chapter. If you try some of these ideas in your search for volunteers, you’re going to be surprised at how many talented people will help you with everything and have a good time doing it. And so will you. 


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